Fantastic Fall Tips

This week while I am busy digging around in my stash closet, we have a wonderful
article from Susan Radke, the owner of Seranya Studios Art Boutique and awesome
landscape artist.


Fall is often a dreaded time for gardeners. The feeling of winter rushing in upon us as we
watch our beloved flowers fade can be a trying time. It is also a time when yard and garden warriors can feel a bit......well, worn out. The thought of putting away the patio furniture is daunting enough, let alone all that cutting back and fall clean-up.
Personally, I have chosen a simple approach to my fall gardening. I love to have time to enjoy the fall colors, walk in the crunch leaves, and the chance to wear my favorite sweaters without needing a bulky winter coat is delightful to me. I'd like to share a few things you might
consider to make your fall yard and garden chores a bit less daunting.
First-make a note of this for next year's growing season if you're not already doing it. Select some of your plants (Echinacea purpurea aka Purple Coneflower is a perfect candidate) to prune before flowering to delay blooming. You can extend your bloom time on Purple Cone
flower well into September and October by cutting them back by one-half in early June or when they are about 2 1/2 tall. Then you'll have those wonderful "cones" to leave up to catch the snow and feed the finches. You may wish to do this with a portion of your planting so you can enjoy the long bloom period or stagger the blooming in your garden.
Next-you don't have to cut everything down. Unless you are one who loves the pristine look of uninterrupted snow, leaving sturdy perennials up for winter creates wonderful winter interest and provided food for birds too. I like to leave almost everything up though some plants don't always look so great. It saves me a lot of time. There are some plants that always need to be cut down (like bearded Iris to eliminate some of the threat of iris borer), but some are so lovely when touched with snow or even ice. Experiment to find out which ones are your winter favorites. A few great candidates for winter interest include:
.Sedum 'Autumn Joy' and similar sedums
.Echinacea Purpurea- Purple Cone Flower
.Solidago (Goldenrod) hybrids
.Rose Hips-let some of your roses produce hips (seed pods) starting in August rather than cut  them all off. This works great with your shrub roses and many have lovely color
.Gateway Joe Pye Weed has seed heads that look great in early winter and later provide covering for birds are they break down in later winter.
.Bigroot Geranium (Geranium macrorrhizum) gets great fall color and is semi-evergreen-so don't cut those leaves off. Just clean up any brown leaves in early spring
.Ornamental grasses-many have strong flower stems which hold up well. It is delightful to see the birds perching on these as they sway in winter breezes, and they provide great nesting material in the spring
.Hardy mums-generally they aren't the greatest looking winter interest plant, but they seem to overwinter better when they have their stems in tact through the winter
Don't touch your lavender? Avoid heavy pruning after late August and wait until new growth breaks in spring (which can be very late-be sure to be patient with your lavender)
Liatris spicata (Gayfeather)-particularly shorter varieties are very attractive with fluffy seedheads on red-tinted stems. Birds like them too.
Don't rush to cover or mulch over you more tender plants. It is less important to keep the plants warm than to keep the ground frozen. Especially around your shallow rooted perennials such as coral bells. Let the ground freeze (often around Thanksgiving time) and then lay your pine boughs or other covering over pachysandra, coral bells, etc. This keeps them from heaving out of the ground during thaw cycles in midwinter.
Cut shrub roses back in spring rather than fall. Hardy shrub roses don't need to be covered like tea roses so they're the ones prefer to grow. Leave them up and cut back to new growth in the spring. This way you can also enjoy those beautiful rose hips that you chose to grow too. Most of us know these days to keep our lawns longer --2-3 1/2" during the summer .
But fall is time to gradually bring the grass down to about 2 - 2 1/2". This will reduce the space available for moles to make runs under the snow in your lawn. Fall is also a good time to fertilize for strong root growth, and if it has been awhile since you have aerated your lawn --consider having that done in October. Leaving the cores on your lawn allows them to decompose over winter. They will disappear by spring allowing the soil and plant material to put the nutrients right back into your lawn even while allowing oxygen to penetrate and revitalize your grass.
Leaves, leaves, leaves! Nature's woodland fertilizer. If you have leaves that fall into your plant beds and they are not too thick-consider letting them stay. They will decompose over the winter and in early spring you can gently cultivate them into the soil around your plants and trees. Getting them off the lawn is easier when they are dry-use your mulching mower with it's bag attachment. Then, use those shredded leaves as mulch or top=dressing in your flower and veggie gardens, adding excellent organic material to your soil.
Bottom line?  Give yourself permission to let your fall be  little less stressed by letting nature do a little more, and you doing a little less.  You'll not only be providing your body with a little respite, you'll be providing food and shelter for your beautiful winter birds.
Thank you so much Susan, for your insights--we appreciate them and gosh, with all that extra time you might take a class at Seranya Studios Art Boutique, or spend an afternoon there enjoying all the wonderful Art.


Stay tuned.